Amnesty Reports Chilling Details of Egypt Press Crackdown

Journalism in Egypt has effectively become a crime over the past
four years, as authorities clamp down on media outlets and muzzle dissent,
Amnesty International said in a report released Sunday.

As the
number of coronavirus infections in Egypt continues to rise, the government is
strengthening its control over information, the London-based rights group said,
instead of upholding transparency during the public health crisis.

“The
Egyptian authorities have made it very clear that anyone who challenges the
official narrative will be severely punished,” said Philip Luther,
Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa director.

Amnesty
documented 37 cases of journalists detained in the government’s escalating
crackdown on press freedoms, many charged with “spreading false news”
or “misusing social media” under a broad 2015 counterterrorism law
that has expanded the definition of terror to include all kinds of dissent.

An
Egyptian press officer did not respond to multiple calls seeking comment, but
authorities have previously denied rights violations and justified arrests on
national security grounds.

Following
general-turned-president Abdel Fattah el-Sissi’s rise to power in 2013, most of
Egypt’s television programs and newspapers have taken the government position
and steered clear of criticism, or else disappeared. Many privately owned
Egyptian news outlets have been quietly acquired by companies affiliated with
the country’s intelligence service.

12 journalists jailed

But
even a pro-government voice hasn’t spared 12 journalists working for
state-owned media outlets, who have landed in jail for expressing various
private views on social media, the report said.

One of
them is Atef Hasballah, editor-in-chief of the AlkararPress website. When he
challenged the Health Ministry’s coronavirus case count on his Facebook page
last month, he was promptly bundled into a police van and detained on suspicion
of “joining a terrorist organization.”

Egypt’s
public prosecutor warned in a recent statement that those who spread
“false news” about the coronavirus may face up to five years
imprisonment and steep fines. At least 12 individuals have been caught up in
the COVID-19-motivated crackdown so far, according to Amnesty.

Last month,
authorities blocked a local news site that covered calls by activists to
release political prisoners over fears of the coronavirus spreading in Egypt’s
crowded prisons. Separately, Egypt expelled a correspondent for The
Guardian newspaper over an article that indicated the
coronavirus infection rate may be higher than officially reported.

The
journalists interviewed by Amnesty reported increasingly direct state
intervention in their coverage. Many working for government-owned or aligned
papers said they receive specific instructions via WhatsApp on what to report
and to omit. For instance, a directive on how to handle U.S. President Donald
Trump’s proposal to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict this year asked
reporters not to mention the plan’s violations of long-standing Arab policies,
as Trump and el-Sissi have cultivated close ties.

Those
who do not hew the official line, such as by praising prison conditions and
smearing the state’s political opponents, “lost their jobs, were
interrogated or imprisoned,” one journalist was quoted as saying. “I
cannot even imagine that someone could refuse to comply.”

Marking
World Press Freedom Day, Amnesty urged Egyptian authorities to halt their
censorship, harassment and intimidation of journalists—and to release those
detained “solely for carrying out their work.”

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